This afternoon, Fact Check.org produced a fact-check that ostensibly criticizes U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK) for his contention that there has never been an instance of ground water contamination caused by hydraulic fracturing. Of course, this piece isn’t really about Inhofe at all; but before we get into that, we can’t help but wonder why they are fact-checking Inhofe and not former EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson … or Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz … or Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell — all of whom have said exactly the same thing. Rather than a “fact-check,” it reads more like an advocacy...

Forty-seven Senate Republicans are signaling in an open letter to Iran and the White House that a deal over Tehran’s nuclear program will be at risk once President Obama leaves office. “It has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system,” the senators wrote in the letter, which was first reported by Bloomberg. “Thus, we are writing to bring to your attention two features of our Constitution — the power to make binding international agreements and the different character of federal offices — which you should seriously...

The proposed Keystone XL pipeline has stirred considerable debate about the future of American energy policy. While the Senate’s recent vote to block its construction tables the discussion for the time being, it does not resolve major questions about how the U.S. transports oil today. With the ongoing shale gas boom, the U.S. is set to pass Saudi Arabia as the world’s top oil producer. Looking beyond KXL, such a rapid rise in production means American transportation networks are straining under new pressures to safely and efficiently move all this energy between different markets. The following figures show how Keystone...

Mesa County commissioners on Tuesday directed Mesa County Attorney Patrick Coleman to draft a notice of intent to sue the federal government over the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s listing of the Gunnison sage-grouse as a threatened species. Gunnison County filed its own notice of intent in December to bring civil action against the Fish and Wildlife Service for, the county believes, improperly listing the bird as a threatened species and naming Gunnison County and acreage in a handful of other Colorado and Utah counties, including Mesa, as critical habitat for the sage-grouse. Mesa County decided to follow with its...

A state-level campaign to rein in the federal government by calling an unprecedented convention to amend the U.S. Constitution is gaining steam, picking up support from two high-profile Republicans as more states explore the idea. Coburn, a legendary government-waste watchdog, announced this week that he has joined the effort by becoming a senior adviser for the group Convention of States Action, which wants states, not just Congress, to pass constitutional amendments. Article V of the Constitution states amendments can be ratified either by Congress or by states if two-thirds of them petition Congress to call a convention. Then, any amendment...

PIERRE, S.D. - A legislative panel has approved a measure that would prohibit abortion providers in South Dakota from accepting payment until the day a procedure is scheduled to be performed. The House Health and Human Services Committee on Tuesday passed the proposal sponsored by Republican Rep. Nancy Rasmussen. Rasmussen says providers shouldn't allow pre-payment for abortions because that might "give the pregnant mother a sense of obligation." South Dakota law requires that physicians wait at least 72 hours after an initial consultation and assessment before an abortion can be performed.

The investigation into Saturday night’s alleged harassment of a Native American school group at a Rapid City hockey game is focused on a man from Philip, according to a source who was near the incident when it occurred. Meanwhile, that same person says the incident was ignited when some members of the school group reportedly did not stand for the National Anthem prior to the start of the Rapid City Rush game. That claim, however, was flatly denied by several of the adults who were with the school group and say the children from the Pine Ridge school did stand...

Teacher pensions are a huge and growing crisis waiting to explode without major reforms, warns a new report released Tuesday by an educational think tank.â€śDo the math on teacher pensions and it just doesnâ€™t add up,â€ť argues the National Council on Teacher Quality in its report, Doing the Math on Teacher Pensions. Total unfunded teacher pension liabilities in 2014 were a whopping $499 billion dollars, the group found. That amount is surging rapidly; in 2012, the total was just $394 billion, meaning that pension debt is growing by over $50 billion a year.Some states are in a particularly huge hole....

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Monday that both Nevada and Tennessee have joined the Lone Star state's challenge of President Obama's executive amnesty, bringing the total number of states fighting Obama's unilateral immigration policies to 26. “Texas is proud to lead a coalition that now includes a majority of the United States standing up against the President’s rogue actions,” Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement. “The momentum against the President's lawlessness continues to build with Tennessee and Nevada joining the effort to protect our states from the economic and public safety implications of illegal amnesty. As President...

The fate of the oil that flows through the Keystone XL pipeline and the source of the steel used to make it are set to be decided this week in the U.S. Senate. The chamber is expected to vote on as many as three amendments to GOP-backed legislation to authorize the TransCanada Corp. pipeline on Tuesday, with more than four dozen other possibilities on the horizon. Few are without controversy, and many are meant to send a message or put senators in a difficult spot, casting votes on such issues as protectionism, oil spills and climate change. The first three...

ALCO stores nationwide, including those in South Hutchinson and 21 other small Kansas communities, are closing. The stores, which typically serve small towns with few other options for everything from clothing to housewares and groceries, began conducting going-out-of-business sales on Friday morning, a day after a U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Dallas authorized ALCO’s owners – Tiger Capital Group LLC, SB Capital Group LLC and Great American Group LLC – to begin doing so. In all, 198 stores in 23 states will close, as will the 113-year-old discount retailer’s 352,000-square-foot distribution center in Abilene. During the liquidation sale, the company plans...

Not since the multiplication of the loaves and fishes near the Sea of Galilee has there been creativity as miraculous as that of the Keystone XL pipeline. It has not yet been built but already is perhaps the most constructive infrastructure project since the Interstate Highway System. It has accomplished an astonishing trifecta: It has made mincemeat of Barack Obama’s pose of thoughtfulness. It has demonstrated that he lacks even a rudimentary understanding of the most basic economic realities. It has dramatized environmentalism’s descent into infantilism. Obama entered the presidency trailing clouds of intellectual self-regard. His carefully cultivated persona was...

The Senate will start debate on Monday on a bill to approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline as Republicans, who have made the project their first priority of the year, try to line up enough votes to overcome a potential veto by President Barack Obama. Senator John Hoeven of North Dakota, a co-sponsor of the bill to approve TransCanada Corp's pipeline, has about 63 supporters, including all 54 Republicans. That is four short of the 67 needed to overcome an Obama veto. The White House has said the president would reject the bill if it reaches his desk. Hoeven said...

It was 2008 when TransCanada initially filed an application with the U.S. government to construct the multibillion-dollar Keystone XL pipeline to carry up to 830,000 barrels of oil per day from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries. Illinois Senator Barack Obama had just secured the presidential nomination for the Democratic Party. Hurricane Ike made landfall, Usain Bolt set world records at the summer Olympics, and the Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. More than six years and many significant historical events later, TransCanada still does not have approval to build an environmentally safe pipeline that would create jobs and...

South Dakota’s Dr. Annette Bosworth reminds me of Egypt’s Ayman Nour. Mr. Nour founded the El Ghad party and back in 2005 became the first person to challenge then Egyptian President (read: dictator) Hosni Mubarak. Just months after losing badly to Mubarak in a rigged election, Nour was arrested, prosecuted and sentenced to five years in prison by Egyptian authorities for allegedly forging voter signatures on petitions to initially qualify his political party for the ballot. Nour served more than three years of that sentence before being released for medical reasons in 2009, leaving Egypt for treatment in Lebanon. His...

Like a lot of other dramatic bluster coming south out of Canada this winter, the Keystone XL pipeline stands poised for its big approval fight this month. Advocates claim it will put Montana in the mix for North American energy independence. Opponents say it will allow the most polluting oil on the planet to contribute to global warming while putting water supplies at risk. The U.S. Senate fell one vote short of approving Keystone during its lame-duck session last month, even though President Barack Obama threatened to veto the measure. But what if it doesn’t matter? While the Keystone project...

The incoming chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, Sen. John Thune (R-SD) put all options on the table when it comes to replenishing the shrinking Highway Trust Fund, which is widely seen as opening the door to a tax increase. Per an AP report, “Gas and diesel taxes haven’t risen since 1993, resulting in perennial shortfalls in the fund that pays for most road projects”. Several commissions have called for raising the taxes, but Congress has been reluctant. Instead lawmakers have dipped repeatedly into the general treasury to keep the trust fund solvent. The federal gas tax...

In early December, President Barack Obama announced the restoration of diplomatic relations with Cuba after more than five decades of a misguided policy which my uncle, John F. Kennedy, and my father, Robert F. Kennedy, had been responsible for enforcing after the U.S. embargo against the country was first implemented in October 1960 by the Eisenhower administration. The move has raised hopes in many quarters – not only in the United States but around the world – that the embargo itself is now destined to disappear. This does not detract from the fact that Cuba is still a dictatorship. The...

The incoming chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee says raising the federal fuel taxes is among the options under consideration to replenish the dwindling Highway Trust Fund. Sen. John Thune of South Dakota says all options must be looked at to fill an enormous shortfall when the existing highway legislation expires in May. …

Lead is malleable. Some opinions about lead ammunition are not. That’s what critics of lead bullets and shells are finding as they advocate a switch to nontoxic alternatives such as steel. In a fight reminiscent of the climate-change debate, evolving evidence of threats to the environment, wildlife and humans from lead ammo and tackle is facing a firing squad of politicians and special-interest groups. Caught in the crossfire are hunters and anglers. So is the Environmental Protection Agency, a favorite target of rural-state lawmakers like U.S. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., who is a co-chairman of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus. Thune...

Oil producers in North Dakota don't seem ready to give up their rail cars just yet. Enterprise Product Partners has shelved plans for a pipeline out of the prolific Bakken Shale after the company was unable to secure enough crude shipment deals along the route to make the project viable. The proposed 340,000 barrel-per-day line would have run 1,200 miles from the oil fields of North Dakota to the nation's largest oil transportation hub in Cushing, Okla. Houston-based Enterprise Product Partners originally announced that it would solicit shipping commitments from Sept. 4 to Oct. 17 - a process called an...

So apparently there’s a uterus puppet going around the country making videos about abortion clinics and lack thereof. Yes, there’s a puppet named Eunice, and she’s a sad uterus. Hans Johnson from JillStanek.com found this great little gem and we just had to share. He wrote: In the “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up” category comes a video called “The Abortion Desert.” Taking a cue from the idea of “food deserts” - a lack of urban grocery stores – the abortion lobby group Lady Parts Justice nervously brings attention to the dwindling number of abortion clinics. For a serious subject,...

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is among a group of five Republican senators who introduced a bill this week that, if passed, would impose a travel ban preventing those in countries currently afflicted by Ebola from coming to the United States. A release on Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley's official website detailed the legislation. Rubio and Grassley are joined by Sens. Pat Roberts (Kan.), John Thune (S.D.) and Mark Kirk (Ill.). Under the proposed bill, people living in countries experiencing "widespread transmission of Ebola" as noted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would be unable to acquire a visa to...

One Democratic congressman is so opposed to the Keystone XL Pipeline that he wouldn’t vote for it even if his party got a minimum-wage bump from Republicans in exchange. “I wouldn’t make that trade,” Rep. Keith Ellison, Minnesota Democrat, told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” of a hypothetical raise to $9.50 per hour. Senate Democrats late Tuesday filibustered a measure to green-light the contentious oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast, potentially dooming the chances of party colleague Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and underscoring the power of the pro-environment caucus. Republicans vowed to put President Obama’s veto pen to the...

When it came time for the US Senate to vote on the Keystone XL Pipeline, Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-LA) “clout” did not have much of an impact on fellow Democrat senators. In fact, 35 of the senators who voted against the project were given campaign cash by Landrieu since the 2008 election cycle. Take a look here at the list of senators who don’t seem to acknowledge Landrieu’s “clout.” Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) $10,000 Sen. Richard Blumenthal (R-CT) $5,000 Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) $10,000 Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) $7,000 Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) $10,000 Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) $3,500 Sen....

President Barack Obama might be open to using the Keystone pipeline as leverage with Republicans if they cooperate on other aspects of his long-stalled domestic agenda, such as investing in infrastructure, closing tax loopholes or reducing carbon emissions. After years of fighting over TransCanada's crude oil pipeline from Canada, a Keystone deal is not entirely out of the question, sources inside the administration and others close to the White House told Reuters on Tuesday. With the Senate's narrow defeat of a Keystone bill on Tuesday, Obama avoided the awkward position of possibly vetoing a bill supported by members of his...

Six years into a wait for the approvals to operate the newest section of the Keystone Pipeline system, TransCanada has already spent $2.4 billion on the project. TransCanada had hoped that it would have the permits for its Keystone XL pipeline within two years, since the first phase of the Keystone Pipeline system was reviewed and approved in 23 months. But it’s been more than six years since TransCanada filed its application to build the Keystone XL expansion, and it has still not been approved. Facing environmental pressures from his liberal base if he approves the pipeline and strife from...

The president of a South Dakota-based Native American tribe says it will be an “act of war” if Congress authorizes construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. “We are outraged by the lack of intergovernmental cooperation,” Rosebud Sioux Tribe President Cyril Scott said in a statement. “We are a sovereign nation and we are not being treated as such,” Scott said in response to Friday’s House vote to approve the project. “We will close our reservation borders to Keystone XL. Authorizing Keystone XL is an act of war against our people.”...

Delays of the Keystone XL pipeline are providing little obstacle to Western Canadian oil producers getting their crude to the U.S. Gulf Coast, with shipments set to more than double next year. The volume of Canadian crude processed at Gulf Coast refineries could climb to more than 400,000 barrels a day in 2015 from 208,000 in August, according to Jackie Forrest, vice president of Calgary-based ARC Financial Corp. The increase comes as Enbridge Inc.’s Flanagan South and an expanded Seaway pipeline raise their capacity to ship oil by as much as 450,000 barrels a day. Canadian exports to the Gulf...

President Obama is fond of telling Congress that it should pass things with the overwhelming support of the American people, including (among other things) comprehensive immigration reform, increasing the minimum wage, and increasing gun background checks. And yet, Obama could soon be in a position of vetoing something with a similar amount of support: the Keystone XL pipeline. Poll after poll has shown support for Keystone is somewhere between very strong and overwhelming. A Pew Research Center survey this month showed support for the project at nearly two-to-one, 59 percent to 31 percent. And that was about the lowest level...

The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) offers our warmest congratulations to the Jewish Republicans who won their races yesterday in the important election of 2014. We are especially delighted that Lee Zeldin won his congressional race in New York’s first district, making him the Jewish Republican in the 114th U.S. Congress. We are also pleased that the Jewish Republicans in state offices around the country won their reelections. Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens, Ohio State Treasurer Josh Mandel, South Dakota State Senator Dan Lederman, Texas State Representative and House Speaker Joe Straus and Texas State Representative Craig Goldman all won reelection....

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus predicted Tuesday that the GOP regaining control of the Senate would mean a signature from President Barack Obama on a bill to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. Getting approval for TransCanada’s pipeline, which has been waiting six years to break ground on the project, would be among the top priorities for a Republican-controlled Senate, Priebus told MSNBC’s Daily Rundown. “We will pass a budget in both chambers, number one, and we will pass the Keystone pipeline, number two,” Priebus said. “And I actually think the president will sign the bill on the Keystone pipeline...

South Dakota's suddenly tight Senate race is suddenly not so tight again, according to the polls. Still, none of the four candidates has majority support. Polls released in recent days show Republican Mike Rounds with bigger leads than in the previous round of polling. A KELO/Sioux Falls Argus Leader poll conducted Oct. 20-23 showed Rounds with 42 percent support; Democrat Rick Weiland at 33 percent; independent Larry Pressler at 13 percent; and independent Gordon Howie at 2 percent. Another 10 percent of respondents were undecided. An NBC News/Marist poll conducted Oct. 19-23 showed Rounds at 43 percent, Weiland at 29...

Vice President Joe Biden will campaign in San Diego for Rep. Scott Peters on Saturday, according to the Democratic incumbent's campaign. Peters is in what polls say is a tight race with Republican Carl DeMaio -- one of the most closely watched and expensive congressional campaigns in the nation. The race has generated more than $10 million in spending by the candidates' campaigns, political parties and independent committees.

Hot on the heels of the Department of Justice’s suddenly-renewed interest in George Zimmerman’s civil rights liability in the self-defense killing of Trayvon Martin (see: FBI Convenes Grand Jury For Zimmerman Civil Rights Case) just days before next week’s election comes another DOJ action timed perfectly for electoral manipulation. National Review Online is reporting that the FBI (a wholly-owned subsidiary of the DOJ) has made the highly unusual decision to disclose their investigation into Mike Rounds (pictured above), a Republican Senate candidate in South Dakota, less than a week before next Tuesday’s vote. The alleged misconduct being investigated is somewhat...

Some polling earlier this month suggested that the South Dakota Senate race might be unexpectedly competitive, but a new poll shows Republican candidate Mike Rounds with a significant lead 10 days before the election. Rounds is taking 43 percent of the vote, according to the NBC/Marist poll released Sunday. Democratic candidate Rick Weiland is at 29 percent and former GOP Sen. Larry Pressler, now running as an independent, is polling at 16 percent.

The largest newspaper in South Dakota broke a story that could cost the GOP a red state Senate seat. The Fiscal Times reports: Â The three-way race for South Dakotaâ€™s open Senate seat got more complicated Wednesday, when the Sioux FallsÂ Argus LeaderÂ publishedÂ a page one storyÂ alleging that former Governor Mike Rounds, the Republican candidate and current leader in the polls, had approved $600,000 in state assistance to a company that was about hire a member of his cabinet. According to reporter David Montgomery, then Secretary of Tourism and State Development Richard Benda requested the assistance for Northern Beef Packers about two...

The three-way race for South Dakota’s open Senate seat got more complicated Wednesday, when the Sioux Falls Argus Leader published a page one story alleging that former Governor Mike Rounds, the Republican candidate and current leader in the polls, had approved $600,000 in state assistance to a company that was about hire a member of his cabinet. According to reporter David Montgomery, then Secretary of Tourism and State Development Richard Benda requested the assistance for Northern Beef Packers about two weeks before he and Rounds were to leave office. Benda was about to go to work for a company with...

At an event in Bogalusa, Louisiana Saturday, Mary Landrieu took time out of her stump speech to get something “off my chest” about her $2.5 million D.C. mansion. ... Landrieu lives in a 7,316 square foot D.C. mansion with 5 bathrooms, 4 water heaters, 2 dishwashers, and 82 fire sprinkler heads. Meanwhile, Landrieu does not own any developed property in Louisiana and bunks with her parents on the occasions she visits the state.

With less than four weeks until Election Day, the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s independent expenditure arm is shifting resources to increase its investment in six states, including South Dakota and Georgia. The NRSC has moved $1 million to South Dakota, plus another $1.45 million to Georgia. In South Dakota, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee made a $1 million television ad buy this week, on the heels of tightening poll numbers that showed its candidate, Rick Weiland, gaining ground. In Georgia, a new poll suggests a runoff is likely. The NRSC also is upping its investment in four other states: Alaska,...

Larry Pressler's wife, Harriet, drives him to all of his campaign events. He has a single full-time paid staffer running his campaign. A bank loan accounts for half of the money he's spent on his race so far. So yes, it was surprising to Larry Pressler when he woke up Wednesday to find himself within striking distance of winning the race for South Dakota's junior seat in the US Senate. A SurveyUSA poll released that day showed Pressler, an Independent, would get 32% of the vote in a race that pits him against former South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds, a...

Despite being an extremely popular two-term governor, Republican Mike Rounds has lost steam in the race for a U.S. Senate seat, according to the latest SurveyUSA poll. With just four weeks until the Nov. 4 general election, Rounds appears to have 35 percent of the vote, down 4 percent from a month ago. Independent Larry Pressler, a former Republican, is within the margin of error with 32 percent, gaining 7 perent from the last SurveyUSA poll. He is followed by Democrat Rick Weiland with 28 percent and the self-proclaimed "conservative" candidate Gordon Howie with just 3 percent. Democrats and their...

The strange three-way Senate race in South Dakota heated up this week with a new poll showing the GOP nominee’s lead shrinking — and with the revelation that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee will commit $1 million to the race, largely to fund ads attacking him. The Republican frontrunner, former Governor Mike Rounds, is competing with Democrat Rick Weiland and the state’s former Republican Senator, Larry Pressler, who now identifies as an Independent....

Independent Larry Pressler continues to steal support from Republican Mike Rounds in the race for U.S. Senate, while Democrat Rick Weiland falls behind, a new poll shows. Survey South Dakota — conducted by Survey USA on behalf of the American News, KSFY TV of Sioux Falls and KOTA TV of Rapid City — was of 616 likely voters and was conducted between Oct. 1 and Sunday. It shows 35 percent of those responding will vote for Rounds, 32 percent for Pressler and 28 percent for Democrat Rick Weiland. Three percent of voters back independent Gordon Howie and 2 percent are...

A political action committee says it will spend $1 million to support Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Rick Weiland. Mayday PAC says it'll begin running TV ads Tuesday in Sioux Falls and Rapid City media markets. The super PAC has the self-proclaimed goal of getting "big money" out of politics. It was founded by Harvard University professor and political activist Lawrence Lessig, who was born in Rapid City.

Shocker: The GOP candidate in SD Senate race is only polling at 35% in a four man race. It has been a "given" that SD, along with WV and MT, was "in the bag" for the GOP so, I have not followed the SD Senate Race. I had to do a Google Search to find out which dude in the poll was the Pubbie and which one was the Dem. Come to find out, there is a former GOP Senator, Larry Pressler, running as an Independent(24%) and another guy, Gordon Howie (another former GOP office holder) running as a Conservative...

With one month until Election Day, Republicans' chances for retaking the Senate and picking up seats in the House are improving. The GOP has been buoyed by positive public polling, while red-state Democrats are still struggling to find distance from President Obama. There are bright spots and even some unexpected new targets on the map for both parties, but the overall national environment seems to have ticked a bit toward Republicans. The GOP needs to win a net of six seats to retake control of the Senate, and Republicans seem better-positioned to do so now than they did through much...

Public Policy Polling’s newest South Dakota Senate poll finds that Mike Rounds’ support has dropped all the way down to 35% in the wake of voter anger over the EB-5 scandal, and that Rick Weiland continues to be better liked and within single digits of Rounds. Key findings from the poll include: -Rounds is at just 35% to 28% for Weiland, 24% for Larry Pressler, and 8% for Gordon Howie. A majority of South Dakotans have a negative opinion of Rounds, with just 41% rating him favorably to 51% with an unfavorable opinion. Weiland’s favorability, at a positive 42/38 spread,...